Editorial | Congress getting paid for gridlock

There's good news for all you voters worried that members of Congress might suffer from the sequester - better known as meat-ax budget cuts - they have created through their stubborn refusal to come up with a spending plan for the federal government.

Hundreds of thousands of government employees nationwide - FBI agents, teachers, defense employees - are about to lose pay through furloughs or job losses the March 1 cuts will trigger. Even the small army of staffers who work for the U.S. House and Senate are about to take a pay cut through furloughs.

But the $174,000 annual salaries of Congressmen and women won't be touched.

And doesn't that seem fair for a Congress which so far has done absolutely nothing to head off deep cuts in most domestic and military programs that take effect next week?

This is because when the nation was on the brink of the so-called fiscal cliff two months ago - as the nation faced a combination of tax hikes on almost everyone as well as cuts in spending - the solution of Congress was to accept some modest tax increases on the wealthiest Americans and can the tax hikes for everyone else.

They also put off dealing with looming, automatic cuts they wrote into law in 2011. For two months.

And now, two months later, the nation is about to face those mandatory cuts that will whack $85 billion from federal spending.

A brief review: The reason Congress enacted those mandatory cuts into law was to come up with a plan so drastic that members would be forced to reach a better solution before the cuts actually took effect.

Drastic is here but members of Congress are AWOL - in fact, on recess right now, still drawing their paychecks while nothing is getting done in Washington.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama and others have issued some sobering warnings about the effects of this irresponsible behavior.

Mr. Obama has taken the case to the public, arguing members of Congress - in particular Republicans who have rejected a Democratic proposal of tax increases and spending cuts - are putting public safety at risk.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned that the cuts could "hollow" out the military. Though military personnel are exempt, some 800,000 civilian employees of the Defense Department face furloughs and crucial operations, training and military actions will be suspended with the potential to "inflict serious damage on our national security," he told Congress.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the impasse is an international embarrassment, noting, "It is hard to tell the leadership of any number of countries that they have to resolve their own economic issues if we don't resolve our own."

And Education Secretary Arne Duncan warns of terrible effects on the nation's schools and Head Start programs through deep cuts in federal funds for education, forcing teachers out of work and kids out of Head Start.

What's the response of Congress?

Mostly to point the finger and blame the other side.

Senate Democrats have offered a plan to raise taxes on millionaires and end some business deductions, raising about $55 billion, and cutting the same amount in federal spending.